The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Tamil pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. Tamil has phonological process by which voiceless plosives are altered to their respective voiced sounds because of their position in a word (word initial versus word medial) or presence of preceding vowel sounds. See Tamil phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Tamil.

Contents

The vowels table is arranged according to Tamil script's order. The consonants table is arranged mostly according to Tamil script's order (consonants-voiceless, voiced, with their corresponding nasal) and at the end 'r' and 'l' sounds are grouped differently for contrasting. The ayudha eluttu, 'ஃ' usually grouped with vowels, is attached to the consonants table here for easily showing its use.

^ abcdefghIn the compound letter series beginning with க, compound க is consonant க் with vowel அ; 'ka' is 'k' with 'a'. Thus the compound letter 'க' has the inherent vowel 'அ', giving 'க' without added vowel sign using diacritics. (The consonant sign called 'pulli' "்", the dot on top of the letter 'க' is removed). But the IPA, ISO 15919 shown here have the consonant 'k' only & do not include the vowel 'a'.

The retroflex ட ( /ʈ, ɖ/) does not occur in the word-initial position.[S 1]

The rule is identical for all stop consonants and these rules are largely followed even today in pronouncing Centamil. But the pronunciation of the letter ச differs: that is, ⟨c⟩ is spoken as /s/ in 'sum' in the intervocalic position[S 1] (/s/ in பாசம் /paːsam/ meaning caring) and not preceded by stop consonant[S 1] (e.g. /t͡ʃ/ in கட்சி /kaʈˈt͡ʃi/ political party; geminate /t͡ʃ:/ in கச்சி /kaˈt͡ʃ:i/ name of a city ) or permitted soft consonant[S 1] ( /d͡ʑ/ in கஞ்சி, /kaɲˈd͡ʑi/ meaning gruel). The rule(s) that may not be followed widely- the pronunciation of the letter ச, ⟨c⟩ as /t͡ʃ/ at the beginning of a word, instead in colloquial Tamil called "Koduntamil", in some words ச may be spoken as /s/ in 'sum' in the word initial position ( / t͡ʃ/ in சின்ன /t͡ʃinna/ compare to /s/ in /sinna/ ).

Thus both the voiced and voiceless stop consonants can be represented by the same script in Tamil without ambiguity, the script denoting only the place and broad manner of articulation (stop, nasal, etc.). The Tholkāppiyam, Nannool gave detailed rules as to when a letter is to be pronounced with voice and when it is to be pronounced unvoiced. But for loanwords[S 1] from Indo-Aryan like Sanskrit, Hindi; Perso-Arabic and English loan words, when they are pronounced in Tamil according to their original languages, the consonants which should be unvoiced according to the Tholkāppiyam's and Nannool's rules; may become voiced.

^ abcdeVoiceless consonants,[S 1] as a first letter of a word or when preceded by stop consonants. Voiceless stops occur as geminate or doubled consonant. For the consonants க, ச, ட, த, ப; the voiceless are /k, t͡ʃ, ʈ, t̪, p/. (The voiced are /g, d͡ʑ, ɖ, d̪, b/ respectively). The retroflex ட ( /ʈ, ɖ/) does not occur in the word-initial position.

^ abcdeVoiced consonants[S 1] only when preceded by a nasal consonant or when not preceded by a stop consonant. Voiced occur after a vowel and do not occur as geminate or double consonant. Never word-initial. The consonants க, ச, ட, த, ப become voiced as /g, d͡ʑ, ɖ, d̪, b/; whereas the voiceless are /k, t͡ʃ, ʈ, t̪, p/ respectively. The retroflex ட ( /ʈ, ɖ/) does not occur in the word-initial position.

^The letter ச is spoken[S 1] like /s/ in sum, when it occurs intervocalically (/s/ in பாசம் /paːsam/ meaning caring) and not preceded by stop consonant (e.g. /t͡ʃ/ in கட்சி /kaʈˈt͡ʃi/ political party; geminate /t͡ʃ:/ in கச்சி /kaˈt͡ʃ:i/ name of a city ) or permitted soft consonant ( /d͡ʑ/ in கஞ்சி, /kaɲˈd͡ʑi/ meaning gruel).

^ The letter த is spoken like "th" in other using [ð] only when preceded by a nasal consonant or not preceded by a stop consonant

Example: In the word ஒன்று/oɳɖɾu/ 'ற' after corresponding nasal 'ன'; 'ன்ற' is spoken as /ɳɖɾ/[S 1] and not /nr/.

Example: In the word பற்றி/pəʈʈɾi/ 'ற' doubled or geminate is spoken as /ʈʈɾ/ and not /rr/.

^The Tamil speech has incorporated many phonemes which were not part of the Tolkāppiyam, Nannool classification. The letters used to write some of these sounds are the Grantha consonants from Grantha script.